Christian I. Yare V. National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (2005)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

BULKACHUWA, J.C.A.

T

his is an appeal against the decision of Adah, J. of the Federal High Court, Abuja, delivered on the 26th day of June, 2003, dismissing the appellant’s claim before him.

The appellant, a driver mechanic on GL 07 under the employment of the respondents, as plaintiff, before the lower court, instituted the suit vide a writ of summons dated 30th March, 2001, against his employers, the respondent, claiming the following reliefs:

(a) A declaration that the compulsory retirement of the plaintiff was wrongful as it did not meet the requirements of the civil service rules.

(b) An order setting aside the retirement of the plaintiff on the grounds that the antecedents leading to the retirement were unauthorized and unofficial, thus, cannot result in an official sanction.

(c) An order of court re-instating the plaintiff to his office without prejudice to any promotion or benefit he may have been entitled to;

(d) An order compelling the respondent to pay to the plaintiff all salaries, allowances and claims from the date of the purported retirement till date and from the date of judgment until the judgment is finally liquidated.

To the writ of summons was annexed a statement of claim of 18 paragraphs whereby in paragraph 18 thereof he claimed the same reliefs.

The respondents entered a conditional appearance on the 3/5/01 and also filed a notice of preliminary objection with a statement of defence of 10 paragraphs.

His grounds on the preliminary objections are;

1. That the action be dismissed for being statute-barred;
2. That the action be struck out for being frivolous, vexatious and an afterthought; and That the plaintiff was not entitled to any or all of the reliefs claimed.

The preliminary objection was moved on 8/2/2002 and in a considered ruling of 26/4/2002, the court overruled the preliminary objection and ordered that the matter proceed to full trial at the end of which the lower court delivered judgment and dismissed the plaintiff’s case on the ground that the action was statute-barred having been brought one year after the cause of action arose.

The plaintiff, who would henceforth be referred to as the appellant, was dissatisfied and had now appealed to this court on 3 grounds of appeal.

From these grounds he formulated 2 issues to wit: